The Bill Maher Of Silicon Valley: When Venture Capitalists Drink Too Much Kool-Aid

I challenged Ben Horowitz over the weekend to stop using the word nigga in any context, even as part of quoted lyrics, but he seems unrepentant and doesn’t care if he offends millions.

If a Black person repeatedly quoted anti-semitic words and lyrics, would they be allowed to get away with it as Horowitz has?

Horowitz is a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, blogger and venture capitalist. The co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, he has a history of pairing hip-hop lyrics with his writing on tech and investing, particularly hip-hop lyrics with the word nigga.

After being challenged and questioned by Black fans on his promiscuous use of the word nigga in his blog posts, Horowitz apologized in 2012 and said he would “obfuscate” some of the letters.

However Horowitz continued to use the word in his writings and received some backlash when he used the word nigga several times as part of quotes in his book, “The Hard Things About Hard Things,” published in 2014 (Harper Collins).

Um…y'all act like Ben horowitz didn't quote someone saying nigger a few months ago from his book and try to defend it as rap lyrics lol

Recently, talk show host Bill Maher apologized for using the term “house nigga” and offending millions of Black people on the HBO political talk show, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Actor and hip-hop artist Ice Cube had a brilliant response to Bill Maher crossing the line.

“I still think you need to get to the root of the psyche because I think there’s a lot of guys out there who cross the line because they’re a little too familiar, or they think they’re too familiar,” Ice Cube told Maher. “Or, guys that, you know, might have a black girlfriend or two that made them Kool-Aid every now and then, and then they think they can cross the line. And they can’t. You know, it’s a word that has been used against us. It’s like a knife, man. You can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It’s when you use it as a weapon against us, by white people, and we’re not going to let that happen again … because it’s not cool … That’s our word, and you can’t have it back.

“… It’s not cool because when I hear my homie say it, it don’t feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it feel like that knife stabbing you, even if they don’t mean to.”

Horowitz would be wise to learn from his partner, Marc Andreessen, who apologized for offending millions of Indians after India rejected Facebook’s Free Basics-Internet.org push in the country. Andreessen, who is on Facebook’s Board with Peter Thiel, had a silly argument against India’s ruling for a free Internet. His words were seen by many as essentially supporting white supremacy and colonialism.

One of many problems with Silicon Valley is its “bubbleness.” It is severely detached from reality and believes it knows what’s best for others. Silicon Valley likely doesn’t care if Black people are offended with the word nigga being weaponized by one of their top liberal venture capitalists.

Donald Trump gave the bubbleheads a wake-up call but we will likely need another financial collapse in Silicon Valley for them to realize that creating and investing in elegant mobile phones, fun mobile apps and creepy advertising tools doesn’t give you the right to use the word nigga, in any context.

About Jamarlin Martin

Jamarlin Martin is the founder and CEO of Nubai Ventures. A pioneer and thought leader in digital media, he grew Moguldom Media Group into a multiple-brand digital media and entertainment platform, selling three brands to Urban One NASDAQ: UONEK. Ozy described Jamarlin as an "Emperor of Digital Media." He won an EY Entrepreneur of The Year Award in 2015.

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